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Aberdeen ended 2017 with a frustrating goalless draw with Hearts at Pittodrie on Saturday as they failed to make ground on Ladbrokes Premiership leaders Celtic.

But McInnes insisted his side head into the winter break in good shape.

"I'm confident that we're set up well for the second half of the campaign," he said.

"Today was the kind of game that McGinn would have been really important to us - unlocking a tight defence and bringing that bit of quality.

"We've got that to look forward to, but we also have the lads we signed in the summer up to speed, more aware of the demands of this club. I think they'll be better for it.

"We're all looking forward to the break and being able to switch off mentally and physically, and hopefully we can do something similar to last season when we hit the second part of the campaign like a train.

"The break can give you that opportunity to re-energise and do that."

McInnes is delighted by McGinn's return

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On McGinn's return, he added: "When a player of the quality of McGinn becomes available then you have to try to do something, and if a player of that quality became available in another position then we might try to do something similar."

Hearts have another reason to look forward to the break, with manager Craig Levein - who stepped back into the hot seat following the departure of Ian Cathro earlier in the campaign - hoping to see a number of his squad return from injury.

After a hectic December schedule, he admitted: "I don't think we'd have managed another match. Certainly my voice wouldn't have.

"We had seven or eight players out injured today and another two injured during the match. We were out on our feet towards the end.

"All credit to them. We had Harry Cochrane playing in a game of this magnitude at the age of 16 and again he showed some fantastic things. I could talk about them all and be here all day."